Price every tattoo from real hours, after the shop's cut. Free, no signup.
Includes ~30 min of unpaid admin per piece (booking, aftercare, touch-up questions). Nobody charges for it. Count it anyway.
On a split, the shop cut comes off the top. On booth rent, leave % at 0 and spread your daily rent across pieces.
Piece Price Check - SEO content block
Set your bar first: the minimum dollars per hour you will work for ($100 default). Then pick the piece preset that matches the job: Flash/minimum, Small custom, Medium, or Large session. Each fills session hours (chair time), design or drawing hours, consult and setup minutes, and supplies as editable starting points. The tool also counts about 30 minutes of unpaid admin per piece, booking, aftercare messages, and touch-up questions, because nobody charges for it but everybody does it. In the shop's take card enter the shop cut percentage and any flat fee per piece. On a split, the cut comes off the top; on booth rent, leave the percentage at 0 and spread your daily rent across pieces as the flat fee. Results show real hours, supplies, what you need, the shop cut, and what you keep. The recommended quote grosses up your need to cover the cut, rounded up to the nearest $25, and your real dollars per hour after everything is the headline number. UNDERPRICED with the exact quote needed, or SHOP EATS THE MARGIN when nothing is left. The gut check shows what your instinct quote pays per hour and the dollars left on the table.
Example only, not typical pricing. Flash preset: 1 session hour + 0.5 design hours + 0.5 consult hours + 0.5 admin hours = 2.5 real hours. Bar $100, supplies $15, shop cut 40 percent: what you need is 2.5 x 100 + 15 = $265. Grossed up for the cut: 265 / 0.6 = $441.67, rounded up to a $450 quote. You keep 450 - 180 - 15 = $255, so the real rate is 255 / 2.5 = $102 per hour, which fires PRICED RIGHT. A $120 gut quote keeps 120 - 48 - 15 = $57, which is $22.80 per hour, leaving $330 on the table.
**Why does drawing time belong in the quote?** Because the client buys the finished piece, not just the chair time. A flash piece with 30 minutes of drawing and 30 minutes of consults is 2.5 real hours even if the session was only 1 hour, and quoting on 1 hour is how the rate collapses.
**How do I price booth rent instead of a percentage split?** Leave the shop cut at 0 percent and put your daily rent divided by pieces that day in the flat fee field. The quote then grosses up only your real cost plus margin, which is the honest way to spread rent.
**What is the 30 minutes of unpaid admin?** Booking messages, aftercare questions, and touch-up scheduling. It is baked into the math automatically because artists consistently forget it, and it is real committed time.
**What does SHOP EATS THE MARGIN mean?** After the cut, flat fee, and supplies, you keep nothing or less than nothing on the piece. The job needs a higher price or a different shop arrangement, not just more hours.
**Should I copy the shop's standard hourly rate?** Only if that rate covers your design time, admin, supplies, and the cut. This tool exists because copying the shop's $100 an hour while the cut and unpaid hours go uncounted is how artists end up at $22.80 an hour.